began as a cycling blog - "Discovering America on 2 Wheels" - in Dec 2009. Since then it's become much more. It is an irreverent, humorous and introspective way of sharing my daily lifestyle, interests, opinions and life challenges. It is a Labor of Love that is Raw, Uncut and Real Time straight from my Heart, Mind and Life to You. So I hope you Read, Enjoy and Become Involved in My Discovery and, in so doing, learn more about Yourself, the World Around You and Your Own Path to Discovery!

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Saturday, January 24, 2015

Well.... I guess it's time for a review.... and some reflection... so let's get started.

Remember I have been working on a Long Term Plan to move off the Texas Gulf Coast where I have lived my life..... all 52 years of it.

And move to where?

The Mountains.... and not the Smoky Mountains or the Appalachians where the Humidity and Rain make it more like a Tropical Rain Forest than my vision of what mountain terrain and environment should be.

So in late December I completed the last logistical step of releasing myself from the bondage of the Texas Gulf Coast and sold my house in Lake Jackson.

With the help of my Dauntless Daughter and her Sidekick Boyfriend, I moved my Worldly Possessions to a 10x15 storage room....

And then plotted a temporary escape to....

Santa Fe New Mexico!

Why Santa Fe NM?

Well - I've been here before and liked it.

Arguably, it is the closest major city to the Texas Gulf Coast that meets my criteria of relocation....

Large enough to have a Walmart, a CrossFit box, a Fitness Center that has Zumba classes and an adequate infrastructure of bicycle shops, bike paths, restaurants.... 4 seasons, dry air, mountains, a major airport within an hour, a culture other than the Redneck - Snob Bipolar personality of Lake Jackson Tx..... You get the picture.

So I've been here almost a month now.... staying in a cozy 2 bedroom furnished casita a half a mile north of the Plaza... and have fallen into a nice little routine that includes a minimum of 8 hours of sleep per night, cycling across town to Group Exercise classes at Anytime Fitness on St Michaels, CrossFit classes on Siler off Cerillos, supply trips to Trader Joe's off St Francis.... been working out hard, eating great food and trying to let my body recover from 2 injuries - torn left groin and right knee cartilage tear (that's what I think happened when I was moving stuff out of my house).

I've also been spending some time looking for employment opportunities.

Now obviously Santa Fe NM is not a hotbed of activity for the Petrochemical related activities that my education and experience are best suited for, but there is some Gas Processing and Refinery related work in different parts of the state and in the other mountain and western states.

I've done my best to limit my employment search prospects to a Northern and Western United States direction.

I've continued to get a sprinkle of work from a Client I worked with in 2014.... which has been a blessing... and that may continue... but I can't count on it.

So what's next?

Well I'm really just in a holding pattern.

The monthly lease on my adorable Santa Fe casita is up on the 28th which ain't that far away and despite my best efforts I haven't been able to land another short term furnished lease that meets my location and budget criteria....

And it's really not part of the Grand Plan.

The Grand Plan that I refer to includes a "sampling" of different locations in the Northern and Western states... That sampling includes a 2 to 4 week stay to get a feel for all the location characteristics described above.

I've done that in Santa Fe.... and let me tell you.... I really liked it here..... and I may come back..... but for now....

It's time to move on.

I considered and had planned to fly back to Houston on the 28th assuming I had some new information (such as a job opportunity) that would point me in new direction or to a new location.....

But I don't have that new data....

I don't know what the future lifestyle template looks like.....

Will I live in furnished housing? Thus negating the need for 90% of the holdings of the storage room in Lake Jackson..... thus suggesting that I sell that stuff and just move with my personal belongings.

Will I live in unfurnished housing? Reverse the logic for the previous statement.

Will I live in a location in a higher elevation - perhaps the mountains - that requires me to do some sort of vehicle swap from a lowlands Mustang to a highlands 4x4 truck?

Will my next location be a semi-permanent location or will I move from place to place based on short term work assignments? Thus the need to remain light and flexible on amount of stuff I have with me and lends more weight to the argument of truck vs car.

Do I want full time corporate employment with all the stresses, hassles and schedule restrictions associated with it?

Or Do I want to continue the less reliable but more lifestyle palletable model of Independent Contracting and short term assignments?

I dunno the answers to those questions.... yet.

I wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago about the need to stay patient and wait for information and opportunity to guide your decision making process.

There's a baseball term related to this situation that came to my mind this morning.....

In the world of baseball, there is a continuous duel between the Pitcher and the Batter.

The Pitcher is continuously trying to throw the baseball in a way that puts the Batter at the greatest disadvantage.

He has studied each Batter's tendencies, likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses and combines his knowledge of the Batter and the current game situation with the collective knowledge of his Catcher.... together they make pitch by pitch decisions on what kind of pitch to throw and where it should come across the plate.... again the end objective is to put the Batter in the worst situation to hit the ball in a way that will get him on base or progress his teammates that might already be on base.

It's kinda what Life does to each of Us.

It continuously tries to force us to make untimely decisions and swing at opportunities that may not be to our best advantage.

There are times though when the Pitcher makes a mistake....

After all he can plan to pitch a curve ball that will catch the low outside corner....

But he doesn't always throw the ball where he wants to..... there's a lot of complexity to a Major League baseball pitch..... a lot of physics goes on in what we all view as something as simple as throwing a baseball.

Anyway....the Pitcher makes a mistake and he doesn't put quite enough spin on the ball and he doesn't throw it quite hard enough....

And what, for a right handed batter, was supposed to be a sweeping from high right to low left curve ball crossing the strike zone in a low and away location becomes.....

A Hanging Curve Ball..... right over the plate.

It's what's known in the Baseball vernacular as a.....

Fat Pitch!

It's called that cause it's slow moving and big and right there in front of the Batter..... it switches the advantage from the Pitcher - Catcher duo to the Batter.

This is one he can hit out of the Park!

If you're patient and you have prepared your presence in the Batter Box of Life with prudence, planning and frugality.....

Every once in a while Life will throw you a Fat Pitch.

An opportunity and direction in life that emerges from nowhere and crosses your path with a sign that says....